My Heart’s Fourth Chamber Pathway – By Charlotte Palmer

A friend asked me to meditate on the thought that there are four chamber pathways to our intuitive hearts: prayer, patience, play and power. This is my inner self’s response. I share it with you at the request of others who were attuned to what I thought was a personal revelation.

Prayer? I use it every day.

Patience? It’s my middle name.

Play? Every chance I get.

Power? Power? I think I have finessed it away in hopes that a Higher Power will be my personal avatar. I don’t want to be “pushy”. It’s not me.

Whoa, there, Pussy Cat! Who says power has to be “pushy”? You know how to set intentions. You know how to embrace your intentions and visualize your dreams. You know that you want power that is not wrested from someone else. You just want a sun ray to shine through the clouds to illuminate you for all to see. Am I right?

I’d say you’ve got me pegged pretty well.

Well, Sweetie, here’s a tip. Think of the power in the water drops that just drip, drip, drip. Show up every day with your intention. Make your offering, Stand up and be counted. Contribute. Care. Share. Dare. Put your offering in the plate. Don’t hesitate. You can always offer some supportive words, pass on a kindness you have received from others. Ask what personal power really means in your life and before you know it, you will be energized, revitalized, and mobilized to use your talents in the ways they were intended. Just look whom you’ve befriended. Check to see that all your fences are mended. Feel yourself in the ebb and flow of life’s daily tides. You have a voice. It will reach the ears of those whom it endears. Release your fears and inhibitions. Stabilize that writing arm. Express that image of contrasts forming in your psyche. Yours is a power of integration so you will find your salvation in mixed media of the illustrated word. To think that you are powerless is absurd. Your potential is about to become kinetic!

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda. By Charlotte Palmer

I woulda called you, if I’d known you were lonely. I coulda had a V-8 instead of that soda if I had more impulse control. I shoulda gotten up 30 minutes earlier so I could make that 7:30 meeting on time.
There I go “if only-ing” my life away. When I start getting down on my lack of foresight , it can lead into a state of self-despair. Is that the place I want to be? I don’t think so. Can I see the sun coming up tomorrow from there? Who put me there?
“Me”, says a little voice within. “You need more self-discipline!”
“But that takes some motivation,” I reply. *Do you think shaming me has accomplished a turn-around in this seasoned citizen?”
“Well, it should,” declared the indignant little voice.
“Well, it hasn’t!” I insisted.
^So what’s your plan?” queried Little Voice.
“My plan is just to accept the choices I’ve made and see what options I can live with and which are really pinching me like too-tight panty hose. I need a little breathing room so I can relax and smell the roses. Give me some time in repose, and we’ll see how it goes. I’m gonna be good to me then we’ll see how my “woulda, coulda, shoulda’s” change to better choices checked off my “That was easy!” list. Truce?”
“Truce.”

Did Curiosity Kill the Cat? By Charlotte Palmer

Let’s think about curiosity as a cure for all that ails you!
That was the gist of an early morning chat with my son. He says curiosity pulls him out of depressive states of mind by providing new interest pathways to follow.
I really hadn’t thought that much about curiosity except for the childhood warning: “Curiosity killed the cat!” I played with that thought for a while from a new perspective. Rather than being put off by that warning, what would it reveal to me if I embraced it as a mystical breakthrough? What if the cat’s curiosity allowed him to discover that he had 9 lives? Now he has expanded his limited mortality so he can continue to be curious in increasingly emboldened ways. That is definitely an expansive thought!
With that intriguing point of departure, I started thinking about some of my explored curiosities.
In my teens I wanted to live abroad with a family. I wanted to attend Cornell University. I wanted to experience living on a tropical island. I wanted to learn to water ski.
Those all came to pass in altered forms after I released the roadblocks and failures of my originally conceived plans. I was accepted as a summer exchange student with the Experiment in International Living … twice, but both times I had to bow out due to “mono” or pneumonia. I was declined by Cornell University because they could only accept a few out-of-state students who had to be stellar performers which was a cut above my “very good” standing. I applied for a private school teaching job on St. Croix, U.S.V.I., but was regretfully informed that the position had already been filled. A very patient young man spent hours trying to teach me to water ski only to remark on my lack of progress that at Florida’s Cypress Gardens they had taught a baby elephant to water ski.
These failures seemed to me like the cat kicking the bucket… so much for curiosity., but the rest of the story gets better!
I got to live abroad for 20 months with several families as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Tigre, Venezuela. My health held together very well. I was invited to the Cornell Spring Weekend my senior year at The Ohio State University. I had a grand adventure getting there, a pleasant, companionable date for the festivities, saw the campus in all its lilac-bedecked beauty while also learning what a dreary, depressing place it was much of the school year.
I accepted a casual invitation to visit that school on St. Croix that had already filled the teaching position. When I called them from nearby St. Thomas, they encouraged me to come visit their new, expanded campus. I did and was offered another position which I accepted. I met my husband of 44 years there and lived on St. Croix for five years.
As for my water skiing failure, I tried again the next day with the young man’s older sister as my coach. This time I got up and stayed up on my skis on the first try! I figured I made all the possible mistakes that first afternoon so there were only right moves left to try the next day. My body finally found its groove so the few times over the years when I had other chances to water ski, I was able to get up and stay up enough to feel proud of my accomplishments.
In this present analysis, this cat may have died or knocked herself out of commission but ended up prevailing in the long run, The expression “Let go and let God” has become my credo as I have noticed these curiosity quests unfold over the years.
Now my quest is to officially retire from my local public school system while still continuing to “work” at playing with children and adults for adequate, comfortable pay and maintain all my faculties and skills intact. Take it away, Divine Order!